The Way Back
by Indigospellbound
Summary: Washed up on a beach with only the memory of a red scarf to her name, the odds are not in the world's favor. ONE-SHOT. POST 2x06. COMPLETE R


"Damn it, where's Korra?!" Mako asked running his fingers through his hair while pacing the room he and his brother were staying at Varrick's mansion. Like the rest of Varrick's things, the brother's room was the definition of excess, expensive rugs from the Fire Nation coupled with sculptures created by the best artists the Earth Kingdom had to offer. It took every ounce of self-control the firebender had left not to burn it all down. If Varrick made his fortune by scamming people the way he burnt Asami, burning his things seemed like logical retribution.

"I don't know Mako." Bolin said lazily from the setae he was lying on while perusing his script for the next day. "Maybe she doesn't want to be around you after, you know, broke up with her." Bolin continued to look at that stupid script not even bothering to look up. Mako couldn't believe Bolin was still willing to help Varrick with his propaganda videos after finding out what he did to Asami. Bolin had basically shrugged his shoulders and said that Asami can take care of herself.

Mako's anger was reaching a boiling point (pun not intended) he let out a frustrated groan and grabbed Bolin's script burning it on contact. "Hey, I need that." Bolin cried trying to grab at the ashes before they hit the ground.

"No you don't. You're not going to help him, none of us are. I'm going to go find Asami and tell her that – " Bolin cut Mako off putting his hand over his brother's mouth.

"- Shhh." Bolin grabbed Mako and lead him to a corner of the room. "I'm not exactly sure." He whispered. "But I suspect that if Varrick has such advanced technology, who's so say he's not spying on us right now." Realization flooded though Mako as he nodded his head slowly.

"Bolin, that's brilliant." Mako whispered.

"Yeah, it happens sometimes. Now you're going to go tell Varrick that you were so excited about his script that you burnt mine so I need a new one. We're going to keep acting like we're on his side at least until we can find out a way to stop him."

"OK, got it." Mako turned to do just that when there was a knock at the door. He opened it and smiled.

"Oh Bolin, it looks like you're darling fiancé is here." Bolin groaned. "I'll leave you two alone."

"No stay fire bender." Mako sat on the setae Bolin previously occupied, her creepy monotone still had a startling effect on him. "I am only here to inform you that my cousin is dead."

"What!?" Both brothers said at once.

"It is true, my brother and I were following her across the ocean when a spirit attacked and she was pulled under. I find it unlikely she survived." She stood at the doorway stone cold, as if the news had no effect on her. Mako was stunned, even though they had just broken up, he was unable to think of a world without Korra in it.

She awoke with a throbbing headache on a sunny beach, so different from where she had come from. Wait… where had she come from? She searched her aching mind for anything, and image, a name, but came up empty. The only thing she knew was that she was hurt, and thirsty. She looked around for any sort of clue that might help her. She found nothing. Wait, are those footsteps?

"Hey, you're awake." Said a mad dressed in a tattered shirt and shorts made from various colors of red. He had messy white hair, a beard and dark tanned skin but his golden eyes were kind.

"How long have I been here?"

"No idea, I've been keepin' an eye on ya since I found you a couple of hours ago. I was able to get ya into the shade but I didn' want to risk hurtin' you more by draggin' ya all the way back to me house."

"What is this place?"

"YanJing island, not the fanciest of places in the Fire Nation." Fire Nation, she though. There was something that she was going to do here, that was just on the fringes of her memory. "there's a village no to far away, not much to look at but nicest folks you'll meet." She opened her mouth to ask another question but he interrupted. "My names Ling, why don't we get you back to my place and get you feed, maybe your mind 'll come back. I'm sure Yumi's got something good cookin'" she couldn't tell what it was about the man that made her trust him but she took his hand and he helped her up. She was wobbly at first but with some time the two of them made it back to Ling's house.

Most wouldn't call it a house, it was more like a shack. It was made mostly out of drift wood, and had old pieces of sheets covering the glassless windows but the way Ling had spoken about it, it sounded like the homiest place she could imagine. Ling was right, she could smell the fish cooking before she went into the make shift doorway. Ling sat her down at the worn dining room table and gave her a quick tour. The house was made up of five rooms, the dining/living room/kitchen she was currently occupying. Ling and his wife's room and the bathroom to the right, and ling's two children's rooms on the left.

"Quick talking the poor girl's ear off Ling and let her eat something." Came Yumi's voice, like her husband she was thin and dressed in warn Fire Nation clothes. Her face was more rounded than Ling's but held every bit of warmth that her husbands had. Yumi put two plates and two cups of water on the table. The guest was hungrier than she thought as she ate her food ravenously and gulped down the water.

"So what's your name Deary?" Yumi asked sitting down at the table with her own plate.

She opened her mouth to answer but paused, name, she knew she had one but no matter how far she dug she couldn't find it. "I…" she tried again. "I don't remember." Yumi gave her a concerned look.

"Do you remember where you're from? You're dressed like you're from the Water Tribe but if that's the case you're a long ways from home."

"I don't remember that either." She wore a puzzled expression.

"You're too pretty of a girl to be lost like this. How about we call you Mei for now, it mean beautiful." Yumi suggested. The girl nodded, Mei it was.

"Now that you're fed up, why don't you go have a rest? Our daughter Ami is in the town with some friends so she won't mind." Mei nodded her thanks and retreated to the bedroom. Like the rest of the house it was nothing special, bare wooden walls and a tattered blanket. But to Mei the straw mattress felt like heaven, it didn't take long for her to fall into a deep sleep.

It was dark when she was awoken by a young girl that looked to be about twelve, her long dark braids reached her mid back and she had her family's humble appearance. "Mom wanted me to ask if you'd like some dinner." Mei nodded and followed Ami to the main room. Candle's flickering light allowed Mei to see the rest of the family all ready. She took the empty seat between Ami and Ling's son who introduced himself and Zuko, proudly named after the great Fire Lord. The name struck a spark inside of her but nothing to grasp onto.

"Do you remember anything?" Yumi asked giving Mei her helping of dinner. Mei shook her head with a frown. The only thing she remembered from her dream was a red scarf and glowing eyes, nothing solid. The family agreed that Mei would stay with them until she could remember enough to find her way back home.

Mako slumped onto the couch of his apartment, enjoying some rare alone time after yet another dry search with The White Lotus for the new avatar. Five years later and still no child with the ability to bend all four elements had been found. Those five years had been hard, not just for Mako and those close to Korra but for the world as well. Without The Avatar The South lost the war and was now united as one country under the reign of Unalaq. Dark spirits still roamed the waters making travel by sea impossible. The shipping business was now monopolized by the President of the United Republic Varrick, who after buying out future industries was able to create a line of one of a kind air ships.

"Any luck?" Asami asked entering the apartment and putting her coat in the closet. Mako shook his head while his fiancé snuggled up beside him. With Korra gone and the world going out of control he had been pulled back to Asami in a way he didn't expect would happen. The two of them had dated off and on for several years before becoming engaged. Mako, now a detective, and Asami, working as a receptionist for a company she used to own made a life together. It wouldn't be accurate to say the two were happy, but they weren't wanting for anything.

"Varrick wants me to go to some stupid gala next weekend. I guess Iroh's coming to town." Mako grunted in reply his mind still with the impossibility that The Avatar has yet to be found. "Are you going to come with me?"

"Yeah, sure." Mako said without enthusiasm. All these galas were the same. A chance to blow the republic's money on some party that would be in the papers for a few days, then everyone would forget about.

"Anyways, I'm going to go to sleep." Asami got up and walked to their bedroom.

"Kay, I'll be in, in a bit." He got up to make himself some tea.

Five years later and Mei still had no more of an idea of who she was before meeting her new family then she was the day she washed up on that beach. The first six months were hard, even after her injuries healed she struggled to remember something, anything. After that she stopped trying. After a year she gave up ever remembering who she was. With her surprising strength, for the first few years she helped Ling and Zuko in the fields during the day, and helped Yumi with the mending and washing at night.

During the second year of her new life Zuko kissed her. Mei hadn't been expecting it, but he was attractive in the boy next door type of way. The one kissed turned into stolen moments behind large stacks of hay and between the little shacks that made up the village. It never went any further; as he was afraid that one day she may wake up and remember she had someone waiting for her back home. She wanted to but whenever they almost crossed the line the memory of that red scarf would creep up.

Four years after her stay Mei got a position working in the Fire Lord's house as young Ursa, General Iroh's, youngest daughter's nanny/maid. Although she never met the general, something about being in the palace felt familiar.

"Mei!" Called Cho, The General's wife called while passing Mei in the halls

Mei bowed as much as she could with a stack of clean linens in her arms. "Yes mistress."

"The week we will be traveling to Republic City for a party thrown by President Varrick. I will need you to accompany us in order to help with Ursa." Mei nodded and with another bow Cho left.

Mei was surprised, she'd never been asked to go anywhere with Ursa before, not could she ever remember being in republic city before. She quickly walked to Ursa's room to finish making the bed.

"They're taking you all the way to Republic City?" Juni, one of the other maids, and Mei's best friend said from her perch on top of Ursa's dresser while Mei fluffed a pillow. "Hmmm." She sighed. "They never take me anywhere."

"Well, that's because you're kitchen staff." Juni threw a stuffed polar bear dog at Mei. "Could you please get down from there before anyone see's you?"

"Hmmph, you spoil all my fun."

Mei had never been in an airship before, and she didn't think she ever wanted to be in one again. Just 20 minutes after the ship took off and she was already airsick. She didn't even know airsickness was a thing before this. Thankfully the trip wouldn't take more than a few hours, but Mei had decided that next time her bosses wanted her to go to Republic City Juni could go in her place. It also didn't help that the whole ride The General stared at her oddly like he had seen her before and was trying to place her. Wasn't the answer obvious? She practically lived in his house. It was all the placing he needed.

"Are you really going to wear that?" Asami said touching Mako's red scarf outside of the president's mansion where the gala was taking place. Hoards of photographers were snapping pictures of guests as they arrived in their finest. Inside the house was lit and music was playing.

"Yes, it's cold out."

"It's the middle of summer."

"You were the one that wanted me to come to this, where I go the scarf goes too." Asami smiled and took Mako's hand. The two took a deep breath and walked into the house.

Mei had never seen anything like it. Sure she'd seen the parties at the palace but there was something different about Republic City, the way that there were people here from every corner of the globe, making her blue eyes and dark skin not stick out as much as it did back home. He dress wasn't special just a plain metallic red dress Juni made for the occasion. It was fine, Mei wasn't there to be seen anyways, her job was to stop Ursa from running around the dance floor, tripping the other guests.

More and more people were coming in, some stopped to introduce themselves to little Ursa, some she recognized from the gossip columns Juni followed religiously. Then she saw it, a flash of red. A red scarf, the red scarf. Mei shook her head there had to be hundreds of red scarfs, it didn't have to be the red scarf. She didn't get a good look at the person wearing it because Ursa was tugging at her again asking for another cookie.

Mako tried his best to put on a good face for the party, but as always Asami and he somehow ended up in the corner staring at people as they walked by. It wasn't that they weren't fun people, but the principle that all of this was happening because Korra had died that caused them to be so jaded. "Look, there's Iroh's little girl." Asami pointed out. "Remember how I used to have that huge crush on him."

"Like I could forget." Mako laughed, but abruptly stopped. Who was that following the girl around? Korra? It couldn't have been, but the way she walked, the way the girls' dark skin looked so out of place in her fire nation clothes, the way she was. There was something undeniably Korra about her. The two locked eyes for a moment. Her blue eyes looking at him like there was something about him she couldn't remember.

His bright gold eyes stared into Mei like she was a ghost. She quickly looked away and followed Ursa on her quest to find Cho. She spent the rest of the night like a shadow behind her famous employers unable to shake the boy with the eyes like fire. She excused herself to find some much needed air and walked down and empty hallway.

Mako tried his best to keep up with what Asami was saying and reply when needed but his eyes stayed on the girl in the red dress. At this point he didn't care if she wasn't Korra, he had to talk to her somehow, but she stayed glued to Iroh's family's side. He needed to get her alone. Finally he watched her walk down a hallway. He cut off whatever Asami was saying, muttering something about the bathroom to follow.

Hey, he called after Mei. Great she thought the last person on Earth she wanted to talk to. She considered ignoring him, and continues to walk out the side door that the end of the hall to the courtyard but something in his voice made her stop and turn around. She couldn't place it, but it sounded familiar. More familiar that anything had seemed in the past five years.

"I want to talk to you." Mako said panting. He thought she might just keep walking but she turned around. Those eyes bore into him like blue fire. "Korra." He sighed in disbelief, she had aged, but it was undeniably her. He knew it was against all logic but every fiber of his being told him Korra was standing before him.

"Who?" She said puzzled her world quickly growing dizzy as her head felt like something had just snapped. "My name's Mei."

Mako couldn't say he was proud of what he did next but her voice was Korra's he knew it was her. He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her.

She stood completely still in shock her headache and frustration growing she hit him a burst of fire coming from her fists. He fell back groaning in pain. He didn't look burnt but that could have been his natural resistance to fire from being a fire bender. Wait, how did she know he was a fire bender? She looked at her fist in shock. Wait, how did she just bend fire?

"What the hell, Korra?!" Mako said looking up at her seemingly unfazed by the fact she can fire bend.

"What do you get off kissing random girls Mako?!" How did she know his name was Mako? Was it Mako?

"See you do remember me." He walked up to her and kissed her again. She didn't fight him this time she surrendered to the feel of his warm lips on hers. Somehow it felt natural, kissing this Mako guy. Her headache grew to new heights as her skull felt like it was being ripped in two. Soon the pain subsided and she felt a strength grow inside her like she had never remembered feeling before. It seemed to welcome her back and fill her with the warmth of an old friend. Mako pulled away gently smiling and she saw a silver light reflected in his eyes. The light dulled away with the last of her headache

"Welcome back, Avatar Korra." Korra laughed feeling whole for the first time in her memory.

"It's good to be back, Mr. Hat Trick." This time she kissed him.


End file.
